External Enclosure 2-bay RAID1 Configuration Help

[Charlie Bell]

I have an Akitio Taurus Super-S LCM 2-bay eSATA external drive enclosure that I want to set up in a RAID 1 configuration. I'm running Win 7 with two internal hard drives that will remain as they are. I will use the two 2TB external drives for video files.

What I can't figure out is how to configure the drives and activate the RAID array. I used disk management to allocate/partition the one visible drive. That drive is now active and visible, demonstrating that the external enclosure is functioning (the display says it's in RAID 1 safe mode). I have found no way to access the second drive for formatting.

I also attempted to set up a RAID config by booting into CTRL-I. The problem here is that the external drives don't appear in the list of drive choices, so I could not complete the RAID setup. I have the same issue trying to set drives in AHCI with CTRL-M.

I reset the RAID 1 to RAID 0 using the enclosure options, hoping I would get access to both external drives, but only one of the drives was visible even in RAID 0. Yes, I did properly set switches when making the change.

The LCD display on the external enclosure shows no errors or problems.

I really need step by step instructions on how to set get the two drives operating in RAID 1 configuration. I'd also like to know how to tell that the mirroring is actually being done.

Additional information which seem relevant to my problem from System Information:

Under Storage/Disks

Disk Drive
eSATA-2 ExternalRAID ATA Device
Fixed hard Disk
Size 1.82TB with cylinder, sector, and track info listed
Disk#2, partition #0
Partition size 1.82TB with no cylinder, sector, or track info

Under Storage/SCSI:
Intel(R) ICH8R/9R/10R/DO SATA RAID Controller
Status Ok
PNP PCI Device

UnderStoarge/IDE:
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Status OK

 

[Charlie Bell]

Update: One thing I forgot tp mention is that the external enclosure is connected via eSATA cable to the AHCI SATA controller. I am assuming that should work with the SATA raid controller.

Would appreciate some ideas on what else to try. My next step is to swap the position of the two external drives so that the assumed unformated drive can be formated and "perhaps" the drives will become visible in the BIOS. Thoughts?

I have an Akitio Taurus Super-S LCM 2-bay eSATA external drive enclosure that I want to set up in a RAID 1 configuration. I'm running Win 7 with two internal hard drives that will remain as they are. I will use the two 2TB external drives for video files.

What I can't figure out is how to configure the drives and activate the RAID array. I used disk management to allocate/partition the one visible drive. That drive is now active and visible, demonstrating that the external enclosure is functioning (the display says it's in RAID 1 safe mode). I have found no way to access the second drive for formatting.

I also attempted to set up a RAID config by booting into CTRL-I. The problem here is that the external drives don't appear in the list of drive choices, so I could not complete the RAID setup. I have the same issue trying to set drives in AHCI with CTRL-M.

I reset the RAID 1 to RAID 0 using the enclosure options, hoping I would get access to both external drives, but only one of the drives was visible even in RAID 0. Yes, I did properly set switches when making the change.

The LCD display on the external enclosure shows no errors or problems.

I really need step by step instructions on how to set get the two drives operating in RAID 1 configuration. I'd also like to know how to tell that the mirroring is actually being done.

Additional information which seem relevant to my problem from System Information:

Under Storage/Disks

Disk Drive
eSATA-2 ExternalRAID ATA Device
Fixed hard Disk
Size 1.82TB with cylinder, sector, and track info listed
Disk#2, partition #0
Partition size 1.82TB with no cylinder, sector, or track info

Under Storage/SCSI:
Intel(R) ICH8R/9R/10R/DO SATA RAID Controller
Status Ok
PNP PCI Device

UnderStoarge/IDE:
Standard AHCI 1.0 Serial ATA Controller
Status OK